


Better Days

by WichitaRed



Category: Alias Smith and Jones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 05:48:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1129061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WichitaRed/pseuds/WichitaRed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>arriving back at the Hole, Kid has a tale of escape which just doesn't sound plausible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Days

**Author's Note:**

> ** set during their Outlaw Days

Better Days  
Pre-Amnesty: set during their days with the Devil's Hole Gang  
Summary: Arriving back at the Hole, Kid has a tale of escape which just doesn't sound plausible. 

 

"Hey y'all, here they come." Kyle hollered hopping off the bunkhouse porch smiling so big he looked fit to bust. "Why I was just in there telling the boys we ought to go searching for y'all."

"Now Kyle doesn't you have more faith in us than that?"

"Why sure I do Kid, but your horses showed up some time ago---" Kyle answered his ever present smile faltering as he took in the Hannibal Heyes's disheveled appearance. "Uhm, Heyes is ya alright?"

"I have had better days." Heyes grumbled taking off his hat and running a hand through his long dark hair. 

"Better days?" Kid chortled, earning himself a black look.

"Yeah better and I do not feel like discussing this one any further." Heyes grumped shoving his hat back on. 

 

"But Heyes, ya horses came in without ya and that plain ain't natural. Kyle said looking from Kid to Heyes. "And ya mare wasn't even wearing her saddle."

"I figured as much." Kid said laying a hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Ah com on Heyes, who would have guessed your plan would go so wrong?"

"I would." Wheat mumbled under his breath, stepping up next to Kyle. 

Hearing him, a frown creased Kid's face, "Now Wheat I have done told you I don't want to hear you speaking ill of Heyes."

"Oh I wasn't Kid, I wasn't. Just saying how me and the boys here have been worried. Weren't we boys?"

The men who had filtered in around them nodded their heads in agreement.

"So tell us. Why did you two, decide to walk home?" Wheat asked throwing, a sly look to Lobo who grinned at him like a mutt waiting for a scrap of meat. 

Shrugging out of his sheepskin coat, Kid caught his partner's eye and quirking him a smile, he tossed his coat onto the porch railing.

"Ah Hell Kid go ahead. I know you are chomping at the bit to tell them but do not expect me to stick around listening to you." Heyes said stomping off to his cabin. 

But his show of temper only made Kid snort and shake his head, "Who caught up Bay and Kate when they came strolling home?"

Preacher raised a finger, "I did."

"How were they?" and seeing Kyle's mouth open, Kid held up his hand, "Other than minus one saddle."

"They was both good, rubbed them down and turned them out with the others." Preacher said. 

"Appreciate it." Kid sighed looking to the high ridges surrounding them. "I suppose we will have to send a search party out for that saddle."

"But Kid, what happened?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah what happened?" Wheat said. But it really wasn't a question so much as a challenge from Wheat as he moved to stand opposite of the Kid.

Hearing the belligerent tone in Wheat's words, Kid's nostrils flared but looking at the older outlaw he decided, he did not feel like locking horns with him at this time so instead of acknowledging him, he turned his attention back to the others. "You boys know the steep humped-backed ridge with the river curving along its basin?"

"Hell yes." Wheat spat out. "That ridge is one of the many natural barriers keeping the rest of the world from getting to close." 

"Exactly, so when Heyes reined in alongside it saying, 'Kid our horses are better equipped for hard terrain then those town horses that posse is mounted on and --"

"Posse! Y'all had a posse after ya?" Lobo said with a gulp, his smile sliding from his face. 

Kid nodded, "Anyways, as I was saying, Heyes tells me, 'once we reach the top, we will be only a hop and a skip our front door and we can let whoever is on sentry duty shoo these law dogs off our tails.' To be honest, even though what he said made sense, I still didn't think much of his idea but then again I will choose any Hannibal Heyes plan over being captured. Besides Heyes already had Kate headed up. So what else could I do but follow them? Now Bay is climbing up the slippery slope just as Heyes said he would but ahead of me I can see his little mare is struggling. Watching her, it came to me for. . .oh about the hundredth time how he needs to trade her in for a bigger animal with more endurance. But, you all know how he feels about Kate and how anything, any of us bring up about her is a losing battle. So I am keeping an eye on them and before we even make it mid-way Kate has had enough. She sets to mule-kicking bucking across the face of that incline and as I am avoiding her, I see Heye's saddle slide sideways.

Several of the outlaws exchange side-long glances at each other and shake their heads. For they all know, Heyes is a stickler when it comes to keeping equipment in top notch condition. And, knowing this about their leader, they begin to feel sure the Kid is confabulating some wild yarn. 

Seeing their expressions, a big toothy grin escapes Kid, "You all said you wanted to know what happened, well I am telling you -- when that saddle slipped, Heyes shot right out of it." Seeing open skepticism, Kid began laughing again, "Guys I am telling you the truth. The cinch gave out, Heyes went rolling and I was left having to avoid him and that damn mare of his as she blew sky high with her saddle flapping along like a useless wing." 

"Well then if all this was happening . . . where then was the posse?" Wheat smirked through an expression which clearly said, he had found the thread to unravel all of the Kid's lies.

"Why Wheat that is precisely what I was thinking as I rodeoed back down the ridge. I kept saying to myself, 'How close are they? How close are they?' So, the second Bay and I were on level ground, I spun about searching for Heyes and spying him clambering to his feet, raced over to swing him up behind me. But, you won't believe what that hard-headed cousin of my says to me. He tells me, Bay being so close behind Kate on the way up the ridge agitated her and it was my fault she flew off the handle and thusly he had not intention on climbing up behind me."

"What?!?" Lobe exclaimed.

"Exactly!" Kid said rolling his eyes. "I am staring down at him and I can hear the posse's hooves pounding on bedrock so I know they will be upon us before Heyes can catch Kate up. So I don't mind saying, I lost my temper. Can't recall what I said but I do know the whole time I ranted, he stood there looking at me as calm as a toad basking in sunshine, until he interrupted saying, 'Kid the posse is too damn close to flee now so I aim to sit in the blackberry patch near the stream and let them just run on by, following Kate and Bay's trails back to the Hole." 

"But that means, Heyes would be leaving you to fend off the posse all alone." Kyle said.

"That is the same thought I had. And, I swear I got so mad, I couldn't put two-words bad enough together to call Heyes. Of course that is when he shook his head while catching hold of Bay's headstall saying, 'You blamed fool -- I ain't sending you out as bait. Now get the hell off this horse before that Sheriff sees you, so I can send him on after Kate.' Hearing him was like a light going off and I could see Heyes had a good plan, so I did exactly as he said."

"Why that was a good idea." Kyle chirped. "Fact it sounds just like a Hannibal Heyes plan. If I ever heard one."

"Hold up. Hold up. We never got to take pot shots at no posse." Kane said. "I mean I saw Kate and Bay come trailing in but there t'werent anyone behind'em."

"Well that would be because they never made it that far. Because, you see things were about to get a whole lot worse, all the way around. See Heyes and I were hunkered down in them thorn bushes. It was hot, there were bees buzzing all around and that damnable posse decided to stop and water its horses. Now Heyes and I had been squatting for a good ten minutes, had to be at least that long, by the way my knees were complaining, when he hisses at me, "Kid break off breathing down my neck, will you?' Have to say, his words caught me off guard because I wasn't behind him but off to the side. So when I look over at him, this is when I see it has gotten a whole lot worse for the pair of us." Pausing in his narration, Kid pulls out a half burnt-down cigar from his vest pocket. 

"What did ya see?"

"What's that Kyle?" Kid mumbled around the cigar as he inhaled, lighting it. 

"What did you SEE?" Kyle hollered. 

"A grizzly." Kid said his grin growing to cover his face, "Heyes had a grizzly breathing down his neck. Let me just say this, when you are that close to a bear only one thought enters your mind . . . .RUN! And, we did. Came charging out of the thicket like there was a bear on our tails, cause there was." Kid slapped his leg, "You never saw such a surprised bunch of men in your life. Can you imagine the two of us running straight at a posse with a grizzly bear on our heels?"

"Nope, Kid it be hard to imagine." Wheat said finally easing up.

"Well, I believe Heyes feels the same way and it has wounded his dignity some. Not mine though. That bear allowed us to skedaddle right through the lot of them bounty hunters and personally I will live off seeing them all turn inside out as they took off in separate directions to escape." Kid said popping his cigar in his mouth as he leaned back against the porch railing. 

"Kid all that really, really happen?" Kyle asked his eyes bugging wide.

Pulling out his cigar, Kid took on a serious expressions, "Why hell yes and if you don't believe me . . . why don't you ask our fearless leader if he wants to go bear hunting?"


End file.
